The Family Friend

Italy/2006

Paolo Sorrentino

Synopsis

Geremia de’ Geremei is 70. A usurer, ugly, filthy, rich and tight-fisted, cynical and ironic. He has a sick and obsessional relation with everything: his mother, his father, money, women. Life itself. That’s why he thinks he’s lonely. But in fact he is not alone. They’re all like him. And so are we.

Paolo Sorrentino was born in Naples in 1970. First feature he directed was One Man Up (2001) which was screened at the film festival in Venice. This film also marked the beginning of his cooperation with actor Toni Servillo who has since become Sorrentino’s frequent collaborator. The Consequence of Love (2004), with Servillo playing a lonely banker with shady past was nominated for Palme d’Or, and so was The Family Friend (2006). His next film was Il Divo (2006), a biographical story about Giulio Andreotti in which Toni Servillo plays the role of the controversial Italian prime minister. The film won the Jury Award at the festival in Cannes. Sorrentino’s next movie, This Must Be The Place (2011), won the Ecumenical Jury Award at the same festival. Sorrentino’s latest film, The Great Beauty (2013), was also screened at the Cannes festival. Paolo Sorrentino presented this film at Kustendorf 2014 and went on to win the American Film Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His next film Youth (2015) won three European Film Awards, including the one for best film. After television series Young Pope (2016) that premiered in Venice, he directed Loro (Them), a Silvio Berlusconi biopic expected this year.